Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions

Even at the time, the sanctions against Iraq drew only sporadic public
comment, and even less attention was paid to the bureaucratic
manoeuvres in Washington, always with the dutiful assistance of
London, which ensured the deaths of half a million children, among
other consequences. In her excellent book Joy Gordon charts these in
horrifying detail, while providing a rigorous examination of the
alibis and excuses given by sanctioneers at the time and since: the
suffering was entirely due to Saddam Hussein’s obduracy; supplies of
food and medicine were available but withheld by the regime in the
interests of propaganda; the Oil For Food programme was corrupt and
enabled Saddam to evade the impact of sanctions, and so on.